South Africa: One Country, Three Nations
By
Abubakar Jika
[DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA]
This is the second part of my experiences here
in
South Africa. The responses of readers to my first
article: Perspectives From South Africa, was stunning. I
got far more reactions than I anticipated. Most of the
responses came from Nigerians living in the United
States. Two trends were obvious from the
reactions. Firstly, Nigerians are agreed, that our
country has performed rather poorly. That we have
failed as a country. We are a real let down. Nobody
appears to know who exactly to blame.
While some blamed the "ruling class" irrespective of
ethnic origins, others blame the "northern oligarchy", even though by now with Obasanjo in
place, and obviously his own man, the oligarchy could
not be conceivably dictating him to ruin the north. But
I guess in Nigeria people still find it convenient to
blame the Hausa-Fulani for what is obviously a
collective failure of leadership.
The second trend is the obvious indignation of our
Igbo compatriots who saw in my blame of Igbo
fraudsters here in Durban for our poor public
image. They doubted my claims and saw it as an attempt
to crucify the Igbos. They demanded evidence from
me. First within the context of Nigerian politics I am
NOT Igbo-hater. I am actually their friend as my
writings obviously show in Nigeria. Their limitations
are however three, in my view, in Nigerian politics: they
are not diplomatic, they are too ready to sacrifice
their own on mesh of pottage and they are too intolerant of others faith, particularly
Muslims. These
make the Yorubas benefit from their obvious
weaknesses.
Now to my proofs. As I am punching this article two
Igbo fraudsters are being docked in court for 419
amounting to Rand 1 million which is equal to N18
million. They swindled an English man. This case is
attracting massive local press coverage here in
Durban. The sad part is they are, as expected, simply
identified as Nigerians. Alec, a guy who works at a traveling agency here at the University, this morning
told my colleague Balarabe Maikaba of his nasty
experiences in the hands of Nigerian fraudsters at
Durban. On closer look at the identities Maikaba found
them to be Igbo. It took him a 30 minutes lecture on
Nigeria and its composition to convince Alec that he
is not a "brother of those who tried to dupe Alec".
For Nigerians living here including many decent Igbos
in the University, the tragic behaviors of our Igbo
compatriots have been long and far. Felix Okonto, a
brother to Ike Okonto who writes for THIS DAY from the U.S. is a PhD student here in Engineering and he
teaches part time in another University in Durban. He
was the first to call us and lecture us on areas to
avoid: West street and its adjoining areas. These are
the main areas of Igbo prowling. According to
him, which we confirmed later, after my colleague lost
his 750 dollars to thieves, that the police also raid
these areas. I told him there was a nice Igbo
restaurant that sells Nigerian delicacies, from which
we took breakfast in the morning.
Felix strongly warn us to keep off. That because of the
"bad reputation of gansterism, fraud, theft of his own
brother-Igbos", the police routinely round up Nigerians
there and cart them to cells. You have to talk your way
out of jail. He disclosed however, that the "boys" always
casually get out, while the innocents suffer. This sad
story was confirmed to us by Augustine, a brother of
the restaurant owner from Mbaise, Imo state. That was
the last time we went there. I must confess I miss the
restaurant and its Nigerian delicacies such as Ishewu.
Chike is another Nigerian M.Sc. student in the Faculty
of Human Sciences. He saw us in our Northern Nigerian
attires and came to us. We became friends. He took two
hours telling us of how "his people are ruining the
name of Nigerians here". I can go on and on these. I don't want to cite the Olagokes or other Yorubas
running their PhD programmes in Gender Studies, whose department is near ours. They are five, all
Yorubas. But
they all enlighten us on which areas to avoid, again
populated by Igbos here in Durban. Indeed as our own
token contribution to revamping Nigeria's bad image, I
and my colleague always wear our Hausa dresses in
Durban, despite the risks these pose to us. At least they
see other sets of Nigerians. Of course they are
expectedly inquisitive and we take our time to explain
that not all Nigerians are fraudsters. Indeed, there are
very few northerners here. We are yet to meet one, three
weeks after coming to Durban.
Now to the issue of South Africa, which I term: One
Country, Three Nations. The reality on ground after
extensive mixing with South Africans of different
races is that apartheid is officially and formerly
dead. But it lives in the minds of many South
Africans. First let us take the blacks.
Apartheid not only destroyed them economically, but
psychologically. You will be amazed, many black South
Africans don't know what is Nigeria or where it is
located. They ask you if is up to three hours drive
from Durban. They are meek and very docile to the
whites. They appear to see any thing white as
superior. they have no feelings for or respect fellow
blacks. That is the general trend. It is even better
relating to the whites than our own fellow blacks.
The majority remain largely illiterate, with very few
business opportunities. The economy and infrastructures remain largely white and coloured. This University for
instance is over 100 years old. It admitted its first
black students only in 1990.And that was for undergraduate studies. The black majority remain
largely poor and in the rural areas. They visit the
cities and do menial jobs and go freely without
passes. But freedom has not been translated to tangible
material gains for most of them.
To be fair, any one who see the colossal structures, the
economy, roads, telecommunications, buildings, etc not to
talk of military might perhaps including nuclear capabilities, can appreciate the awesome might of
apartheid. I appreciate better the enormity of the
forces Mandela confronted from prison. No wonder the
gentle man would remain a global hero of all times. To
dismantle apartheid was akin to what the Palestine are facing in the Middle East.
There is a growing band of black supremacist feelings
championed by some lowly blacks here. What is called
Movement For Virtuousness in Zulu language. A
photographer here who is a Member lectured us on their
objectives. These sounded like the OPC thing to
me: black communes, black transport, black police, black
swimming pools, etc. A sort of separatist movement. I don't know how large or strong such movement is. But
from the claims of the photographer who believes "all
white people are evil" it does appear like a hate
group, which is fashionable in developed economies. It point to one thing however. Desmond Tutu's
Reconciliation Commission which Nigerians cite, appear
not to have finally reconcile the warring parties. In
my view, the reason is the inability of the reconciliation process to address economic, bread and
butter issues.
To enlighten blacks, such as Zim, an Honors student in
the Social Sciences here at the University, there is a
contradiction between, the Equity Act passed by
parliament after freedom, which provided for redress
through "fair discrimination" and the Constitution that
ushered that freedom which explicitly forbids any form
of discrimination no matter its grounds. Here lies the dilemma of post apartheid South Africa: How do you
redress the obvious discrimination blacks endured over
100 years which entrenched current white
privileges, without discriminating against the same
whites? It is a question even large-hearted Mandela
found a hardnut to crack. He gave way to younger
ones. It is obvious even they, after, they as we say in
Nigeria, "belleful" have to confront. You will in the
nite, after the cops move to more dangerous zones in
search of criminals, be confronted by an army of black
youths, hungry, begging for what to eat:
South Africa's "Almajirai".
Yes, South Africa has its own version of Kano's
Almajirai: bands of jobless, hungry youths chanting for
assistance. The only difference is they don't carry
bowls, an ingenuity but for fear of being robbed we
could have suggested to them. My friend Maikaba, a Kano
man was saying if he imported Kano's Almajirai, they
will become fat here due to countless dustbins. He had
to "eat" his words, as he saw they could meet quite a
challenge from the South African version of youth
black beggars.
I am yet to meet a white who begs or enter buses
here. We only saw a lone mad white man looking for alms
and out of novelty my Colleague dashed him a
rand. Such is the situation on ground here, that our
Yoruba newspapers that liken the Nigerian situation
before Obasanjo to South Africa and the Hausa-Fulani
to the Boers were so unfair to us. Perhaps the reverse
is more the case, at least at the level of the Nigerian
economy.
Now to the South African whites. They are made up of
the English, who are more liberal and the Afrikaans who
are more harden. But NOT all Afrikaans are hard-line. They have some liberals. But on a general
level most of the whites I spoke to are disappointed
with the way the blacks are managing their
legacies First, they cite rising crime rates across
South Africa. This I believe from media reports they
are right. Crime was lower under apartheid. The laws in
the view of many people are to laxed now: low sentences
and lengthy process to catch criminals and convict
them. The police appear not to be helping matters.
My colleague Maikaba, whose 750 dollars were stolen right inside our hotel here in Durban, by apparent
internal collaboration: bag ripped off, door
untouched, was told by cops, they can't do
anything, since he did not physically catch any
thief. Infact after the hotel followed up the case, the
police told them they have already closed the
file, even before they open it. Harun an Indian who work
at the hotel confided that, this was not how the
ap[artheid police work. That a miscreant who lifted his
own 650 Rand in a bus, and who he pointed to the
police, was told by the police to first "catch the
thief. and they will prosecute the thief".
The whites also talk of the economy nose-diving, a
claim Harun the Indian Hotel receptionist concurred. That since 1994,according to them the economy
took a dive. I was not around and cannot independently
verify this. But it is a theme the whites appear unanimous on: the blacks are bad economic managers. But
perhaps IMF/WORLD BANK are to be blamed. It could even
be a collaboration to discredit the blacks, since the
economy is privately owned and in the hands of whites.
The third area of nostalgia for the whites is on
employment. They argue that during their time, the
economy is buoyant and unemployment is 2 per cent. Now
they cry, unemployment is 70 per cent. These are figures
I could not independently verify. The whites, and I
spoke to many of them in their shops insist that when
they were ruling, the blacks had no freedom, but have
jobs and food to eat. That all blacks had jobs no
matter how lowly. Now blacks are free, but no jobs, no
food. That which one is better?
Educated blacks, such as Zim the Social Science student
however dismissed the whites claim as bellyaching
after loosing power. As she call them" bosses
former" gave them bad jobs and kept the good ones. She
agreed that there are unemployment now more than
before, but she queries the quality of the apartheid
jobs.
We have the third group, the Indians or coloured. To me
they are the more politically dubious. If blacks are
near, they support scrapping of apartheid. The Muslim ones, appear more pious, with long beards and Halal
foods. But they rip you off in a jiffy. They double
their prices and cut you, if they get the chance. If
they know you are Nigerian and has no stake in South
Africa, they run the blacks down as bad administrators and poor managers. They recall apartheid with
nostalgia: security, peace, jobs, good economy. Zipho the
photographer call them cowardly hypocrites.
That makes South Africa a country with three
nations. What worsen the situation in my view is the
recent history, which appears to be an embarrassment that foreclosed public discourse of race
matters. Justine, who works in a travel agency believes
that while blacks from other parts of Africa freely
discuss racial issues, blacks here still have complex
problems which makes such issues to be driven
underground. But one day South Africa has to confront
its past, before its tomorrow. Not in a circuit public
show, but concessions on ground. t could then become
one country, one people.
ABUBAKAR JIKA, writes from Graduate Programme in Media
& Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humans
Sciences, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.
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